Life & Style | Home & Interiors
From Bali to Barbados
Mike Pemberton's vision of a dream home, although conceived in Bali, became a reality in Barbados. We open its doors for you...
- Lena Moosa, Features Editor
- Published: 12:05 December 1, 2008
- Image Credit: Supplied
- The overall blueprint of this home suggests a unique outside-inside living feel, each pavilion representing a bedroom, kitchen or living space.
It appears that mortals are emulating the habits of divine beings. One look at Alang Alang is enough to ensure us that earthlings too have a flair for creation – more precisely, creating paradise.
Nestled in the Cinnamon 88 Four Seasons Private Residences at Clearwater Bay in Barbados, is a place surrounded by ponds, gardens, pathways, water features and a strong sense of Feng Shui. It is a home inspired by Bali and imbues gentle breezy calm on all who enter.
This home is a temple of subtle yet indulgent dreams. Mike Pemberton, proud owner and co-founder of the luxury development company Cinnamon 88, poured all his wants into one mould, creating a place so gorgeous that became the interiors showcase for many more homes to follow in the Four Seasons development.
Italian designer Claudia Norma Longoni smiles as she recalls the time this project fell in her lap via friend, colleague, fabric designer and soulmate, Carole Quatermaine.
“When Mike visited Carole regarding the design for Alang Alang, I was also there since I had just started working with her full time. Carole and I always liked antiques and markets, and after Mike's proposal, we suggested he join us in the South of France to become better acquainted with our spirits. After a tryst in France digging up furnishing gems, Mike trusted us completely. I started working on everything on the furniture side for Alang Alang, while Carolyn concentrated on the fabrics, accessories and soft furnishings.''
And so started a labour of love that bore fruit after two years. Pemberton, an avid French antiques collector, was only too happy to collaborate with Claudia and Carole, and merge his collectibles with their finds from the markets in France.
Alang Alang now resembles a museum of French sophistication coupled with eclectic and traditional Balinese and Indonesian traits.
In fact the very name comes from traditional Balinese roofing made from tightly interwoven blades of alang alang grass. “But these, as is, were not adaptable to the potentially strong wind conditions in Barbados, so we had to use the short cut grass roofing version under Canadian Cedar shingled roofs,'' says Martin Grounds of Grounds Kent Architects.
“This formed the exposed ceiling between pavilions and acted as an elegant linking method as you moved from one space to the next.''
The Alang Alang dream was inspired by a stay in the Four Seasons Resort in Bali after which Pemberton immediately contacted Grounds, whose firm created that award-winning resort.
“Mike was based in Sydney (East Coast) while we're based in Fremantle (West Australia),'' says Grounds. “Mike suggested a meeting and I insisted, ‘Ok, if you come to me', thinking he wouldn't travel all this distance just for a meeting. He did… and we became friends from the very first time we met. This is how GKA ended up designing his fabulous home in Barbados.''
Situated at the edge of the Caribbean on Clearwater Bay, this undeniably heavenly structure spreads over an area of 10,000 feet, and is sewn together by six pavilions with no walls and beautiful green patches and ponds linking them.
Pemberton is a devout follower of Feng Shui and all Cinnamon 88 properties adhere to this discipline. For Alang Alang, he brought in master practitioner Patrick Wong from Singapore to work alongside Claudia on the flow of the interiors.
Elements such as water and plants were crucial in creating harmony within the spaces and the home. Alang Alang has five ponds alone, one filled with small sharks, two with giant goldfish (a symbol of good luck) and two with bright orange and white koi. Large palms and grasses were placed throughout the villa to ease the flow of Qi or positive energy.
The overall blueprint of this home suggests a unique outside-inside living feel, each pavilion representing a bedroom, kitchen or living space.
And just off the living area, a twenty-five metre infinity pool pays homage to the azure waters of the Caribbean, providing an achingly beautiful view, particularly at sunset.
Complementing this serenity and beauty is a formal dining setting under an alang alang grass-ceiling gazebo with a delicate chandelier. The overall mood at night with lit candles and chandelier is truly romantic and can easily melt the hardest of hearts.
Wood plays a large role in the earthen, soulful ethos of this place. The door to the main entrance, brought from Java, is wooden, heavy, and impressive, and immediately sets the tone of the atmosphere that awaits.
Reclaimed teak makes up most of the functional areas, as well as the doors and certain main pieces of furniture, and is made pretty with touches of Indonesian carving and artwork.
Crafted from coconut wood, the pavilion columns have been painstakingly worked on and smoothened, leaving the natural patterns to emerge, and so exuding a gentler, understated appeal.
French antiques from Pemberton's lifetime collection and his French markets expedition with Claudia and Caroline dot the entire home. Each piece is unique and often accompanied by its own quirky story.
One of the upstairs bedrooms has a wall filled with vintage perfume bottles of all shapes and colours from Grasse in Provence. Sharing space with a four poster bed covered with crisp white antique French linen under a high ceiling canopy roof, these bottles add a sense of old world grace.
The same linen drapes the windows and was originally made for a chateaux in France, which is why much of the fabric bears the chateaux's monograms.
Pemberton's most prized piece is an intricately designed hand-crafted love seat that sits elegantly amidst an antique silver toilette set in the powder room.
The mesh of design creativity continues into the master bedroom with a large chandelier at eye-level, posing more as art than light fixture.
Original and rare large, black-painted reclaimed teak slabs make up the headboard and bathroom counter. Never forgetting to pamper, there is an indoor shower made of Italian marble and an outdoor one of bamboo.
Safe to say, this décor is a collage of insanity laced with suave, and speckled with beauty. The look is decidedly one of a kind, at times quirky, and yet never interrupting the smooth aesthetic flow of the overall design, all the while keeping it subtle, romantic and delicate.
In Grounds' own words regarding the interiors, “Lord knows what ‘style' you would label these interiors with, but one thing is for sure… it's personalised, unique and adds enormous charm and romance.''
Claudia is quite certain and succinct in her opinion. “The villa is a reflection of Mike Pemberton's soul,'' she says. “A good interior designer, for me, is one who captures the soul of the person intended to live in that space.''
The architecture of Alang Alang is fairly foreign in that the only Barbadian elements are the concrete block walls rendered with special limestone.
The rest was pre-made, pre-cut or brought from Bali. To Pemberton, this project was without doubt a labour of love and passion, and one closest to his heart.
He was there in Bali to select the materials and personally watched over the entire construction process in Barbados. Grounds recalls, “Mike would ring us in Australia with a requirement for a design detail at the end of his day on site (which is 12 hours ahead of ours). We would produce that detail during our working day and have it ready for him for work on site the next morning. In effect, the job sometimes ran for 24 hours a day!''
But the toil was all the more sweet for Pemberton, who completely immersed himself for two years until his vision came to fruition. And what a vision of paradise it was.
So much so that it was immediately elected the unofficial show home for the Four Seasons residences in Barbados.
Defining luxury and good taste, this home has attracted A-list celebrities such as Andrew Lloyd Webber and Simon Cowell who purchased two villas each.
As Grounds puts it, “It is a piece of tropical architecture that sits comfortably in Barbados and to some extent, defies style. It has an integrity that is true to the materials, and those materials create the space and the environment.
Sometimes things just come together into a successful total, and there is no doubt in my mind that this house has a truly special feel.''
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